Erikland

TORN - now torn out!

2011-09-15T08:30:00.000+02:00

TORN by Erik Schwarzfeld | Make Your Own Book

One Last Game, One Last Chance

2011-06-15T08:16:00.003+02:00

Well, folks, I'm breaking my very extended silence on this blog to publicly wish my Canucks to play their hearts out tonight.......game 7, let's do this Vancouver!!!!!!!!

Off to Sin City...

2009-05-01T06:47:00.005+02:00

Hehe.....not really--the sin I'm referring to would be Singapore, where you're really not allowed to sin, or so I've been told....why just today I read about yet another mega-fine being levied, this time for simply walkin' about in the nude. Honestly, the things some governments worry about!

Anyways, we've all heard about the gum thing, the graffiti thing, the caning thing....now's the time to see what else Singapore has to offer. I'll be based in Little India, which is rather convenient since most of the top vegetarian restaurants appear to be located there.

Less convenient is the fact that I'll be working in the Tanjong Pagar region, which just happens to be on the exact other side of town. It's cool, they have a great, efficient transit system, or so says the internet.

I'll be there for the whole month of May (ok, not counting today, sheesh!) so I should have plenty of time to check out all the interesting stuff that tourists check out....and maybe even see some of the "real Singapore," whatever that is.

So if anybody wants anything from there, now's the time to let me know, provide your address and hand over a stack of Singaporean bucks. I'll also be posting some pics on Flickr; checking out those is free of charge :)

Congrats to Adbusters!

2009-04-10T10:25:00.003+02:00

I was pleased to see some encouraging email in my inbox today:

ADBUSTERS WINS A LEGAL VICTORY AGAINST CANADA'S MEDIA GIANTS, LEGAL ACTION IN THE US MAY BE NEXT

For those that haven't been following this story, Adbusters has been regularly discriminated against when they have attempted to broadcast TV spots encouraging people to reduce the obscene consumption levels of North Americans and other Western nations.

Naturally the corporate media controllers haven't been terribly keen to publicize suggestions that our consumerist lifestyles have spiraled out of control when they're already busy selling ad space to hundreds of companies that encourage us to buy even more useless crap.

Some more from the story:

After 15 years of legal tussling to bring democracy to the public airwaves, Adbusters has finally scored a great victory. The Supreme Court of British Columbia has granted us an appeal in our landmark case against Canada's CBC and Canwest Global, giving us the go-ahead to set a precedent and establish some public rights over the airwaves (check out the judges’ ruling here).
The airwaves are public property – just like city sidewalks or parks. They are a public space where freedom of speech must prevail. This is an inspiring idea for media activists and could pave the way for further legal victories down the road not only on the TV airwaves, but in cyberspace as well.

Not surprisingly, none of Canwest’s 13 daily newspapers or 23 TV channels covered the appeal court ruling. The silence has been deafening. Canadian citizens should be aware that the largest media conglomerate in our country is censoring the news to suit its own interests.

The Globe and Mail, however, did cover it.

The story on Adbusters

And a couple rejected ads:

Obama in Praha: Lots of wating for a glimpse

2009-04-05T17:36:00.008+02:00

Yes, as has been recently mentioned by my partner in blog, Obama came to town today.

It was kind of my idea to go to this but when the alarm started a-ringin' its pseudo-new-agey chime at 0600 hours (on a flippin' Sunday!) I was strangely feeling rather unenthused to crawl out of bed to see the optimistic US prez speak at Hradčanské náměstí.

It wasn't until 7 that we actually made it out of the house--this was the time that we had originally meant to be there at :Z

From there, we were treated to a lot of standing: Standing waiting for the tram, standing on the tram with hundreds of other expats, standing for about an hour and a half to get to the security tent, then standing for another hour and a half while waiting for the speech to begin (he was 20 minutes late!). Ok, I haven't done all the math on the times here but the point is, it was a lot of waiting. And standing.

When he finally did come out to start speaking, we had to strain to get a glimpse of the podium and reach our arms up high to try and get a decent pic--this was made tougher to do since the other 20,000 or so people had the same idea.

Most frustratingly, there appeared to be a couple of security or sun guard things flanking him on either side of the podium--I swear these little barriers rose slightly once he got out there--which made getting a decent shot next to impossible, as the one on his left just happened to completely block his head.

Oh well. It was an interesting experience, was enjoyable to hear him speak and I liked a lot of what he had to say--will be interesting to see, though, how much he's actually able to do.

The focus was overwhelmingly on the reduction and elimination of nuclear weapons--certainly a refreshing goal to discuss after the last president's militaristic outlook.

Here's one pic that did, kind of, work out:

The Fragility of Life

2009-03-18T21:29:00.003+01:00

Life is beautiful. Life is short. Make the most of it while it's here.

These expressions became clichés because they contain a great deal of truth.

Yet how often do we actually live with these philosophies in mind?
For a lot of us, the answer is not very, I reckon.

Who could possibly expect to be vacationing on the beach one afternoon, only to be fatally beaten moments later by some sick fuck lying in wait??

Probably none of us, yet that's exactly what has happened to a very close family member of mine a couple weeks ago--she passed away this morning.

My family and I are understandably in quite the state of shock over this, and all I can do at this point is attempt to heal, to cope, and, hopefully, to live life with a stronger appreciation for every day and every moment--since we truly never know what's around the corner.

Missing Larry?

2009-03-04T21:43:00.003+01:00

Yeah, so am I.

Seriously, how much longer until Season 7 of Curb debuts??
And what's this about him being in a new Woody Allen movie?

Oh well....at least we have his blog over at The Huffington Post to keep us entertained....er, not that it's been updated in a while :Z

Fine, guess I'll just have to wait patiently and make myself a "Larry David sandwich": Whitefish, sable, cream cheese, onions and capers. Eh, maybe later...

Well I tried.

2009-02-15T18:30:00.006+01:00

Really, I did.

I had the place all picked out, made the reservation, even called to confirm that all was set.

Even showed up on time.

I had been envisioning the night for a couple days, my love and I sipping red wine luxuriously, gazing into each others eyes with little red hearts glowing where pupils normally appear. Yes, all that mushy stuff.

We'd order a few nice Mediterranean starters and eat them slowly, permitting the aromatic, freshly prepared spreads to tantalize our taste buds. By the time we'd finished with the starters, the live music would have kicked in and we'd start to sway a bit to the grooves, gently, smoothly. Later the tempting main courses would arrive, exactly as I'd imagined from perusing the website earlier that week.

Finally, as the night progressed and we'd eaten, drank and danced, we'd return to our comfy corner couch and puff sweet apple tobacco from the nargilah--again, slowly.

Well, it didn't quite work out that way. See, we got there and the place was virtually empty. The tables were nicely decorated but there were no menus available. Instead, we found ourselves forced to 'choose' from the pre-set Valentine's Day menu. Not only did this menu lack what I had been eying all week, it was also, "incidentally", three times the price. With as much gracefulness as we could summon up, we excused ourselves from the classy joint and went to a cozy, but simple, pub for some good ol' pivo and had some stinky cheese.

Oh well, I tried.

And, actually, we still had a pretty good time :)

Chanukah, Oh Chanukah / Where to Buy a Menorah......

2008-12-12T16:36:00.013+01:00

Yes...........unlike Israel, where menorahs (or chanukiahs, to be precise) are ubiquitous and most houses (including my last) have 3 or 4 of them kickin' about, finding one in Prague proved to be rather trying.

The first shop I managed to find them in had a few nice options, and one in particular caught my eye--until I caught a glimpse of the price, which had many, many zeros in it......yikes. Backing up slightly, I realized that the shop was full of extremely valuable and expensive jewelery and knickknacks and I suppose the menorah I spotted must have been made of solid silver--or something of the sort.

I checked a few kiosks in the Jewish quarter, Josefov, but found the selection quite poor and the prices absurd (a hundred crowns for a single dreidel?!?! What choice did I have......I bought one).

Eventually I did find a nice, simple menorah in a shop that also sold books and tickets for the Jewish Museum sites. But did they carry candles? Not a chance!

Walking out of there, I knew that finding fitting candles would be a nightmare....and it was.
Shop after shop, pharmacy after pharmacy, Tesco after Tesco, nobody seemed to carry plain, simple, fitting-perfectly-into-a-menorah candles.........let alone 44 of them........

Frustrated and tired, I eventually found a few small boxes of miniature birthday candles that MIGHT work, and headed home.

They sort of fit, but looked quite sad. So I continued the search.

Surprisingly, a local Potraviny had some candles that looked like they MIGHT fit.....so I cautiously slapped down 10 Kč and brought home 5. The result? Well they fit...sorta.

It took a bit of whittling down of the ends to get them to stay in, and I figured that they would do, despite the extra work involved.

Which brings us to today where, lo and behold, the local GARDEN shop, of all places, turned out to be a candle emporium in disguise. Rounded candles, tealights, funky triangle candles, and a zillion other types were all neatly displayed on the store's shelves. Still, none of them seemed to look right for my increasingly frustrated menorah. Probing further, I walked down a side aisle next to the staff entrance.....and it was there that I found a single old, faded, carton of 15 pink, "romantic" candles.....but at 0.8 cm diameter, these should be the right size! Mercifully, the clerks understood my broken Czech and managed to muster up a couple more boxes from their storage area in the back.

Feeling rather pleased about my find, I hurried home to try to fit them.....and they did--rather nicely, in fact. With scarcely more than a week before this Channukah's first candle, I can finally feel like I'm ready to celebrate the festival of lights.

Now, about finding that worn latke recipe I scribbled down a few years ago.....

Plzeň: Land of Beer....

2008-11-17T20:48:00.006+01:00

Yes, Plzeň is indeed the city of beer, and not too much else as we discovered on this rather chilly holiday Monday. Our train out of Prague arrived into Plzeň around 1200, giving us just enough time to figure out how to get to the famed brewery that is the source of both Pilsner Urquell and Gambrinus--the tour was supposed to start at 1230.

Once we arrived we were faced with a number of surprises. Firstly, the brewery was open. Yes, this was a bit of a shock since it was a holiday and was made even more impressive once we realized how many other businesses, including pubs & restaurants, in the town were closed for the day.

Next surprise was the sheer size of the plant--it was massive. I'd seen the outside of Prague's Staropramen factory, which had appeared to be simply one building. This, on the other hand, was an incredibly large complex of brewhouses, packaging plants, a museum, a giant courtyard, restaurant, souvenir shop etc, etc......it was the Wally World of breweries (maybe that's why we were also sort of expecting it to be closed...)

Finally, we were surprised by how few English-speaking tourists were waiting to join the tour with us. And by "few", I mean none. While the lobby/waiting area for the tours had a good scattering of people when we arrived, they all clamored to join the Czech tour at 1230....ours began at 1245 and it was just the two of us and a cheery guide who gave us a thorough education on Pilsner beer and the plant.

We started in the packaging area and then moved on to the production areas and cellars, before finally being able to sample some! The beer that we tried was unpasteurized and unfiltered and was drawn from a giant wooden barrel with the year 2007 stamped on it. We also were taught the correct way to taste it--who knew there was such a thing?! Isn't that just for snooty wine aficionados? Us beerfolk don't have such customs, do we?? Well, apparently we do, or so insisted our guide.

When we were finally turned out onto the street again, after a 100-minute tour, we made our way over to St. Bartholomew's Cathedral and the Great Synagogue--the 2 other main attractions of the town. And while both were very impressive, by this time we both had lunch and another beer (or 3) on our minds.

Finding ANYTHING open on a holiday in Plzeň proved extremely difficult, although we eventually found a pub, called The Pub, which not only had cheap grub, but also let you pour your own beer from taps that had been installed on each table--easy enough to use once you figured out what all the little buttons on it meant :)

Overall, the day was yet another successful visit to yet another corner of Bohemia.

I actually tried to post something this morning....

2008-11-14T21:30:00.003+01:00

But the damn wifi was down....damn

But I tried.

The day after...

2008-11-01T17:49:00.004+01:00

Hallowe'en, natch.

I wasn't sure what sort of Halloween scene I would find in Prague and, quite truthfully, I didn't find much. Oh sure, there were a handful of obligatory pumpkins here and there in the shop windows, but fully spooked-out halloweenies were few and far between. Not like I'm one to talk--my "costume" didn't really come together until the night of the haunting itself.....and even then it was fairly weak.

The original concept was that I would be an "80's-yuppie-car-crashed-zombie" and while it was fun imagining it, coming up with the appropriate costume--which apparently includes an imprint of a Mercedes logo on the side of one's face--was rather difficult at 10 PM on a Friday night. So we sorta improvised, meaning we smeared some makeup on me and called it a costume.

My special lady friend was looking far spookier with her spider goddess garb, and the bottom line is we got through the door without paying and didn't have to resort to scrawling the word "costume" across our foreheads--like some people we know...

Here's a pic:

Visitors...

2008-10-28T17:41:00.005+01:00

Today our cozy home was blessed with a couple of visitors from the Holy Land: My cousin and his girlfriend. This gave me a great opportunity to catch up with them a bit and find out how things have been going in Israel. I was also excited to be able to chat with them in Hebrew (I've really been missing speaking the language since I moved to Prague in May).

The timing is actually perfect, since today just happens to be Independent Czechoslovak State Day (Den vzniku samostatného československého státu), the day that way back in 1918 Czechoslovakia was formed.

So I had the day off and crawled out of bed this morning to go meet them at Ruzyně Airport.
Thankfully the El Al flight was on time. From there, I escorted them back to my place, a rather circuitous journey that manages to incorporate the 3 primary elements of Prague transport: Bus, Metro, Tram (in that order).

Naturally our first stop after they dropped off their bags at our place was to take them to our nearby Czech pub and introduce them to some of the local culinary delights, such as Smaženy Syr and gulash with knedlicky. Ice-cold Gambrinus was of course on tap to drink with our meal.

Despite the rainy weather, they have been out exploring the Prague sights, while we took the rest of the day pretty easy...........

Welcome...

2008-10-26T08:38:00.000+01:00

Yes, I know that starting yet another Erikland site may seem a bit redundant.....so sue me!

My regular site for Hebrew to English translation can be viewed at Erikland Translation

If you're more into my photos, they can be viewed on Flickr

As for this site, well we'll just have to wait to see how this plays out, won't we?